Where else but in baseball can you see one of the best pitchers of our generation get completely and utterly shelled in a 16-2 flogging on Friday night. Then on Saturday night, a shortstop everyone has all but written off, hits the walk-off homerun to win the game in the 11th inning, then on Sunday, That Clay Person, who I personally had completely written off until this year as a complete head case, comes out and pitches 6 strong shutout inning, despite the fact that there was a 104 minute rain delay to being the day, and then a 59 minute delay in the top of the 3rd! And I thought he was certainly done after the 2nd delay, but he came back out and did not miss a beat…

That Clay Person, I owe you a Mondo Apology: I am sorry I thought you were a head case that should have been traded…

His line: 6 innings, giving up 5 hits while walking 3 and striking out 7. His record is now 15-5 with the lowest ERA in the AL with 2.26. He threw 97 pitches, 63 for strikes in the contest…

So Okajima was scoreless in his 1st rehab outing on Saturday night, retiring the side on, get this 5 pitches. He will pitch again tonight, and then will return to Fenway to be revaluated. I reallyREALLY hope he is better–because he has been major suckage for pretty much all of 2010 (4-3 with a 5.85 ERA)…

Neat-o Stat: Big Papi, who had his 1st triple of the 2010 campaign yesterday, has had at least 1 in his last 11 season, and 15 over the span of hi career. Crazy stuff…

Ya know what he WORST part of watching the late innings of a rain delayed game? The yahoos who end up behind the plate because everyone has left. And, as an added bonus, these same nimrods can he heard on the TV feed because everyone else has left. There was this one kid, who had a whiny voice that made my teeth hurt, and every time a batter came up, he would repeat OVER AND OVER AND OVER “Let’s go (players 1st name)” and you could hear this as clear as a bell on the feed. It got so bad that I almost changed to the Toronto feed in hopes it wouldn’t be there….UGH…

This is the best thing I have heard all week–from Bill Hall: “We need to get that killer instinct. Time’s running out. We definitely need every win possible. We know that in here. It’s not like we’re not trying to win the games, but somehow they just seem to slip away.” Well said, Bill–this is what needs to happen if the Sox are going to have ANY chance to get back into this race. They are currently 6.5 back in the AL East, and 5.5 back in the Wild Card…

Finally, the 9th Annual WEEI/NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon raised $2,944,726! That means, in the last 9 years, the Radio-Telethon has raised over $25 million for the Jimmy Fund…Yay!

Coming up: John Lackey kicks off the final 3-game series of this homestand against Seattle. Let’s hope this outing is a little less labored than the last. He is opposed by Doug Fister for the Mariners. 1st pitch: 7:10pm